Antiquities of the Jews — Book 16, Chapter 10

1. The disorders about Herod's family and children about this time grew
much worse; for it now appeared certain, nor was it unforeseen before-
hand, that fortune threatened the greatest and most insupportable
misfortunes possible to his kingdom. Its progress and augmentation at
this time arose on the occasion following: One Eurycles, a Lacedemonian,
[a person of note there, but a man of a perverse mind, and so cunning in
his ways of voluptuousness and flattery, as to indulge both, and yet
seem to indulge neither of them,] came in his travels to Herod, and made
him presents, but so that he received more presents from him. He also
took such proper seasons for insinuating himself into his friendship,
that he became one of the most intimate of the king's friends. He had
his lodging in Antipater's house; but he had not only access, but free
conversation, with Alexander, as pretending to him that he was in great
favor with Archelaus, the king of Cappadocia; whence he pretended much
respect to Glaphyra, and in an occult manner cultivated a friendship
with them all; but always attending to what was said and done, that he
might be furnished with calumnies to please them all. In short, he
behaved himself so to every body in his conversation, as to appear to be
his particular friend, and he made others believe that his being any
where was for that person's advantage. So he won upon Alexander, who was
but young; and persuaded him that he might open his grievances to him
with assurance and with nobody else. So he declared his grief to him,
how his father was alienated from him. He related to him also the
affairs of his mother, and of Antipater; that he had driven them from
their proper dignity, and had the power over every thing himself; that
no part of this was tolerable, since his father was already come to hate
them; and he added, that he would neither admit them to his table, nor
to his conversation. Such were the complaints, as was but natural, of
Alexander about the things that troubled him; and these discourses
Eurycles carried to Antipater, and told him he did not inform him of
this on his own account, but that being overcome by his kindness, the
great importance of the thing obliged him to do it; and he warned him to
have a care of Alexander, for that what he said was spoken with
vehemency, and that, in consequence of what he said, he would certainly
kill him with his own hand. Whereupon Antipater, thinking him to be his
friend by this advice, gave him presents upon all occasions, and at
length persuaded him to inform Herod of what he had heard. So when he
related to the king Alexander's ill temper, as discovered by the words
he had heard him speak, he was easily believed by him; and he thereby
brought the king to that pass, turning him about by his words, and
irritating him, till he increased his hatred to him and made him
implacable, which he showed at that very time, for he immediately gave
Eurycles a present of fifty talents; who, when he had gotten them, went
to Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and commended Alexander before him,
and told him that he had been many ways of advantage to him, in making a
reconciliation between him and his father. So he got money from him
also, and went away, before his pernicious practices were found out; but
when Eurycles was returned to Lacedemon, he did not leave off doing
mischief; and so, for his many acts of injustice, he was banished from
his own country.

2. But as for the king of the Jews, he was not now in the temper he was
in formerly towards Alexander and Aristobulus, when he had been content
with the hearing their calumnies when others told him of them; but he
was now come to that pass as to hate them himself, and to urge men to
speak against them, though they did not do it of themselves. He also
observed all that was said, and put questions, and gave ear to every one
that would but speak, if they could but say any thing against them, till
at length he heard that Euaratus of Cos was a conspirator with
Alexander; which thing to Herod was the most agreeable and sweetest news
imaginable.

3. But still a greater misfortune came upon the young men; while the
calumnies against them were continually increased, and, as a man may
say, one would think it was every one's endeavor to lay some grievous
thing to their charge, which might appear to be for the king's
preservation. There were two guards of Herod's body, who were in great
esteem for their strength and tallness, Jucundus and Tyrannus; these men
had been cast off by Herod, who was displeased at them; these now used
to ride along with Alexander, and for their skill in their exercises
were in great esteem with him, and had some gold and other gifts
bestowed on them. Now the king having an immediate suspicion of those
men, had them tortured, who endured the torture courageously for a long
time; but at last confessed that Alexander would have persuaded them to
kill Herod, when he was in pursuit of the wild beasts, that it might be
said he fell from his horse, and was run through with his own spear, for
that he had once such a misfortune formerly. They also showed where
there was money hidden in the stable under ground; and these convicted
the king's chief hunter, that he had given the young men the royal
hunting spears and weapons to Alexander's dependents, at Alexander's
command.

4. After these, the commander of the garrison of Alexandrium was caught
and tortured; for he was accused to have promised to receive the young
men into his fortress, and to supply them with that money of the king's
which was laid up in that fortress, yet did not he acknowledge any thing
of it himself; but his son came ill, and said it was so, and delivered
up the writing, which, so far as could be guessed, was in Alexander's
hand. Its contents were these: "When we have finished, by God's help,
all that we have proposed to do, we will come to you; but do your
endeavors, as you have promised, to receive us into your fortress."
After this writing was produced, Herod had no doubt about the
treacherous designs of his sons against him. But Alexander said that
Diophantus the scribe had imitated his hand, and that the paper was
maliciously drawn up by Antipater; for Diophantus appeared to be very
cunning in such practices; and as he was afterward convicted of forging
other papers, he was put to death for it.

5. So the king produced those that had been tortured before the
multitude at Jericho, in order to have them accuse the young men, which
accusers many of the people stoned to death; and when they were going to
kill Alexander and Aristobulus likewise, the king would not permit them
to do so, but restrained the multitude, by the means of Ptolemy and
Pheroras. However, the young men were put under a guard, and kept in
custody, that nobody might come at them; and all that they did or said
was watched, and the reproach and fear they were in was little or
nothing different from those of condemned criminals: and one of them,
who was Aristobulus, was so deeply affected, that he brought Salome, who
was his aunt, and his mother-in-law, to lament with him for his
calamities, and to hate him who had suffered things to come to that
pass; when he said to her, "Art thou not in danger of destruction also,
while the report goes that thou hadst disclosed beforehand all our
affairs to Syllcus, when thou wast in hopes of being married to him?"
But she immediately carried these words to her brother. Upon this he was
out of patience, and gave command to bind him; and enjoined them both,
now they were kept separate one from the other, to write down the ill
things they had done against their father, and bring the writings to
him, So when this was enjoined them, they wrote this, that they had laid
no treacherous designs, nor made any preparations against their father,
but that they had intended to fly away; and that by the distress they
were in, their lives being now uncertain and tedious to them.

6. About this time there came an ambassador out of Cappadocia from
Archelaus, whose name was Melas; he was one of the principal rulers
under him. So Herod, being desirous to show Archelaus's ill-will to him,
called for Alexander, as he was in his bonds, and asked him again
concerning his fight, whether and how they had resolved to retire
Alexander replied, To Archelaus, who had promised to send them away to
Rome; but that they had no wicked nor mischievous designs against their
father, and that nothing of that nature which their adversaries had
charged upon them was true; and that their desire was, that he might
have examined Tyrannus and Jucundus more strictly, but that they had
been suddenly slain by the means of Antipater, who put his own friends
among the multitude [for that purpose].

7. When this was said, Herod commanded that both Alexander and Melas
should be carried to Glaphyra, Archelaus's daughter, and that she should
be asked, whether she did not know somewhat of Alexander's treacherous
designs against Herod? Now as soon as they were come to her, and she saw
Alexander in bonds, she beat her head, and in a great consternation gave
a deep and moving groan. The young man also fell into tears. This was so
miserable a spectacle to those present, that, for a great while, they
were not able to say or to do any thing; but at length Ptolemy, who was
ordered to bring Alexander, bid him say whether his wife was conscious
of his actions. He replied, "How is it possible that she, whom I love
better than my own soul, and by whom I have had children, should not
know what I do?" Upon which she cried out that she knew of no wicked
designs of his; but that yet, if her accusing herself falsely would tend
to his preservation, she would confess it all. Alexander replied, "There
is no such wickedness as those [who ought the least of all so to do]
suspect, which either I have imagined, or thou knowest of, but this
only, that we had resolved to retire to Archelaus, and from thence to
Rome." Which she also confessed. Upon which Herod, supposing that
Archelaus's ill-will to him was fully proved, sent a letter by Olympus
and Volumnius; and bid them, as they sailed by, to touch at Eleusa of
Cilicia, and give Archelaus the letter. And that when they had ex-
postulated with him, that he had a hand in his son's treacherous design
against him, they should from thence sail to Rome; and that, in case
they found Nicolaus had gained any ground, and that Cæsar was no longer
displeased at him, he should give him his letters, and the proofs which
he had ready to show against the young men. As to Archelaus, he made his
defense for himself, that he had promised to receive the young men,
because it was both for their own and their father's advantage so to do,
lest some too severe procedure should be gone upon in that anger and
disorder they were in on occasion of the present suspicions; but that
still he had not promised to send them to Cæsar; and that he had not
promised any thing else to the young men that could show any ill-will to
him.

8. When these ambassadors were come to Rome, they had a fit opportunity
of delivering their letters to Cæsar, because they found him reconciled
to Herod; for the circumstances of Nicolaus's embassage had been as
follows: As soon as he was come to Rome, and was about the court, he did
not first of all set about what he was come for only, but he thought fit
also to accuse Sylleus. Now the Arabians, even before he came to talk
with them, were quarrelling one with another; and some of them left
Sylleus's party, and joining themselves to Nicolaus, informed him of all
the wicked things that had been done; and produced to him evident
demonstrations of the slaughter of a great number of Obodas's friends by
Sylleus; for when these men left Sylleus, they had carried off with them
those letters whereby they could convict him. When Nicolaus saw such an
opportunity afforded him, he made use of it, in order to gain his own
point afterward, and endeavored immediately to make a reconciliation
between Cæsar and Herod; for he was fully satisfied, that if he should
desire to make a defense for Herod directly, he should not be allowed
that liberty; but that if he desired to accuse Sylleus, there would an
occasion present itself of speaking on Herod's behalf. So when the cause
was ready for a hearing, and the day was appointed, Nicolaus, while
Aretas's ambassadors were present, accused Sylleus, and said that he
imputed to him the destruction of the king [Obodas], and of many others
of the Arabians; that he had borrowed money for no good design; and he
proved that he had been guilty of adultery, not only with the Arabian,
but Reinan women also. And he added, that above all the rest he had
alienated Cæsar from Herod, and that all that he had said about the
actions of Herod were falsities. When Nicolaus was come to this topic,
Cæsar stopped him from going on, and desired him only to speak to this
affair of Herod, and to show that he had not led an army into Arabia,
nor slain two thousand five hundred men there, nor taken prisoners, nor
pillaged the country. To which Nicolaus made this answer: "I shall
principally demonstrate, that either nothing at all, or but a very
little, of those imputations are true, of which thou hast been informed;
for had they been true, thou mightest justly have been still more angry
at Herod." At this strange assertion Cæsar was very attentive; and
Nicolaus said that there was a debt due to Herod of five hundred
talents, and a bond, wherein it was written, that if the time appointed
be lapsed, it should be lawful to make a seizure out of any part of his
country. "As for the pretended army," he said, "it was no army, but a
party sent out to require the just payment of the money; that this was
not sent immediately, nor so soon as the bond allowed, but that Sylleus
had frequently come before Saturninus and Volumnius, the presidents of
Syria; and that at last he had sworn at Berytus, by thy fortune, 13 that
he would certainly pay the money within thirty days, and deliver up the
fugitives that were under his dominion. And that when Sylleus had
performed nothing of this, Herod came again before the presidents; and
upon their permission to make a seizure for his money, he, with
difficulty, went out of his country with a party of soldiers for that
purpose. And this is all the war which these men so tragically describe;
and this is the affair of the expedition into Arabia. And how can this
be called a war, when thy presidents permitted it, the covenants allowed
it, and it was not executed till thy name, O Cæsar, as well as that of
the other gods, had been profaned? And now I must speak in order about
the captives. There were robbers that dwelt in Trachonitis; at first
their number was no more than forty, but they became more afterwards,
and they escaped the punishment Herod would have inflicted on them, by
making Arabia their refuge. Sylleus received them, and supported them
with food, that they might be mischievous to all mankind, and gave them
a country to inhabit, and himself received the gains they made by
robbery; yet did he promise that he would deliver up these men, and that
by the same oaths and same time that he sware and fixed for payment of
his debt: nor can he by any means show that any other persons have at
this time been taken out of Arabia besides these, and indeed not all
these neither, but only so many as could not conceal themselves. And
thus does the calumny of the captives, which hath been so odiously
represented, appear to be no better than a fiction and a lie, made on
purpose to provoke thy indignation; for I venture to affirm that when
the forces of the Arabians came upon us, and one or two of Herod's party
fell, he then only defended himself, and there fell Nacebus their
general, and in all about twenty-five others, and no more; whence
Sylleus, by multiplying every single soldier to a hundred, he reckons
the slain to have been two thousand five hundred."

9. This provoked Cæsar more than ever. So he turned to Sylleus full of
rage, and asked him how many of the Arabians were slain. Hereupon he
hesitated, and said he had been imposed upon. The covenants also were
read about the money he had borrowed, and the letters of the presidents
of Syria, and the complaints of the several cities, so many as had been
injured by the robbers. The conclusion was this, that Sylleus was
condemned to die, and that Cæsar was reconciled to Herod, and owned his
repentance for what severe things he had written to him, occasioned by
calumny, insomuch that he told Sylleus, that he had compelled him, by
his lying account of things, to be guilty of ingratitude against a man
that was his friend. At the last all came to this, Sylleus was sent away
to answer Herod's suit, and to repay the debt that he owed, and after
that to be punished [with death]. But still Cæsar was offended with
Aretas, that he had taken upon himself the government, without his
consent first obtained, for he had determined to bestow Arabia upon
Herod; but that the letters he had sent hindered him from so doing; for
Olympus and Volumnius, perceiving that Cæsar was now become favorable to
Herod, thought fit immediately to deliver him the letters they were
commanded by Herod to give him concerning his sons. When Cæsar had read
them, he thought it would not be proper to add another government to
him, now he was old, and in an ill state with relation to his sons, so
he admitted Aretas's ambassadors; and after he had just reproved him for
his rashness, in not tarrying till he received the kingdom from him, he
accepted of his presents, and confirmed him in his government.